N/A
Nine rowers have accused United States Rowing Association men's coach Mike Teti of physical and verbal threats ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Janie McCauley of the Associated Press reported Saturday the rowers' accounts come amid an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee into U.S. Rowing's national team programs.
"He'll vary so wildly from the guy that you think is actually going to have his uncle kill you if you don't win ... to the guy that's crying and telling you that he loves you," an unnamed former Olympic rower told the AP. "That exists in the same guy—and I believe both of them. There is a storm raging inside that guy that he has a hard time controlling."
Other athletes who've been coached by Teti told McCauley his coaching style "breeds winners." Teti released a statement to the AP about the allegations against him.
"I believe that I have coached fairly, with the athletes' well-being in mind," he said. "Any athlete who thinks they have been the subject of improper conduct or unfair treatment should voice that concern in the appropriate venue. U.S. Rowing has reporting mechanisms and personnel in place for that very purpose, and has a zero tolerance policy for retaliation."
Teti won a bronze medal for Team USA at the 1988 Summer Olympics as part of the men's eight rowing team.
The 64-year-old Pennsylvania native started his second stint as the U.S. men's rowing head coach in 2018. He previously filled the same role from 1997 through 2008. He's also coached at the collegiate level at Cal, Princeton and Temple.
He's a member of the U.S. National Rowing Hall of Fame as both an athlete and a coach.
Athletes who spoke with McCauley provided "drastically different accounts" of his coaching style.
"I have heard Mike Teti tell athletes, 'If you take one more step, I am going to punch you ... I'm going to kill you,'" one former U.S. team member told the AP about an incident outside of an Oakland boathouse two years ago, an account confirmed by the rower who was being threatened.
Teti denied there were any physical threats made during that conversation.
"It was a disagreement over the best way for an athlete to reach his highest potential. I expressed my feelings clearly, and firmly, and so did he," he told McCauley. "I called him moments later and we apologized to each other. ... There were no threats of violence."
The Arent Fox law firm, which was hired by the USOPC to handle the probe into the national rowing teams, wouldn't provide a timetable for when its results would be released. U.S. Rowing CEO Amanda Kraus told the AP the review is "not an investigation of any particular coach."
Teti was previously investigated in 2016 by the University of California and in 2018 by SafeSport, a watchdog group, but neither probe publicly revealed details of the findings, per McCauley.
Ben Holbrook, a member of the Team USA at the 2004 Summer Games, pointed to Teti's success to show his coaching style was effective.
"Everyone invited to his camp has already been incredibly successful in rowing in some way," Holbrook told the AP. "I have always thought that Mike's job is to determine who of the most elite athletes can work together in the most pressure-packed moments to maximize the opportunity to win gold."
Others hope the USOPC review will eventually lead to a change atop the U.S. Rowing men's team.
"Mike Teti is extremely verbally abusive and manipulative. He uses fear, your finances, your place on the team and even physical intimidation against you," a former U.S. rower said. "The mental well-being of his athletes is completely disregarded by him."
The men's eight rowing competition in Tokyo begins with heats July 25 and ends with the July 30 final.
Germany's rowers won two gold medals in the quadruple sculls as both their women's and men's teams prevailed in their finals on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas at Rio 2016 on Thursday.
New Zealand's indomitable duo Hamish Bond and Eric Murray successfully defended their Olympic title in the men's pair final—they beat South Africa into silver and Italy to bronze—to maintain their staggering seven-year unbeaten record.
Poland's pairing of Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj got their tactics spot on in the women's double sculls, ousting Great Britain and Lithuania. In the men's version, it was brothers Valent and Martin Sinkovic who won gold for Croatia.
Here are the results from the rowing finals on Thursday:
| Final | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men's Quadruple Sculls | Germany (6:06.81) | Australia (6:07.96) | Estonia (6:10.65) |
| Women's Quadruple Sculls | Germany (6:49.39) | Netherlands (6:50.33) | Poland (6:50.86) |
| Men's Pair | New Zealand (6:59.71) | South Africa (7:02.51) | Italy (7:04.52) |
| Women's Double Sculls | Poland (7:40.10) | Great Britain (7:41.05) | Lithuania (7:43.76) |
| Men's Double Sculls | Croatia (6:50.28) | Lithuania (6:51.39) | Norway (6:53.25) |
| Lightweight Men's Four | Switzerland (6:20.51) | Denmark (6:21.97) | France (6:22.85) |
The men's quadruple sculls kicked off a day of six finals in the rowing after the second postponed day of the competition on Wednesday due to bad weather.
Defending their 2012 Olympic title, the German quartet held off a surging Australian crew to take victory on the line with Estonia finishing in the bronze medal position.
The women's race was even tighter as Poland led for the majority of the run but could just not hold on to the line.
They were overhauled by both Germany and the Netherlands with the foursome of Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Julia Lier and Lisa Schmilda coming home strongly for gold.
Murray and Bond had clear water between them and the rest of the field after 1000m and kicked on to win with ease in the men's pair and reconfirm their dominance of the event.
The fight for the silver medal was very tight with 500m to go between Great Britain, Italy and South Africa, with the latter two coming home the stronger for the medals.
In the semi-finals on Thursday, the Great Britain's men's four of Mo Sbihi, George Nash, Alex Gregory and Constantine Louloudis laid down a significant marker, cruising home ahead of Canada and the Netherlands, per GB Rowing Team:
So impressive from the @TeamGB men's four there, clear-water winners and through to tomorrow's #Rio2016 final pic.twitter.com/9u2XG30rGo
— GB Rowing Team (@GBRowingTeam) August 11, 2016
Team GB's dominant women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning also won their semi-final with ease after very nearly being beaten for the first time since 2011 in the heats by Denmark.
The Danes will look to run Glover and Stanning close again in the Friday's final, along with the USA, South Africa, New Zealand and Spain.
In the women's double sculls, Poland’s Fularczyk and Madaj produced a searing finish to overhaul Great Britain in the final quarter, timing their run to the line perfectly.
The margin was a narrow one in the end, with the British pairing of Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley leading at the halfway point. However, in the latter stages, the duo started to feel the pain, allowing Fularczyk and Madaj to slowly reel them in.
Although Grainger and Thornley looked disappointed after finishing in second, their effort impressed four-time Olympic champion Matthew Pinsent:
Lithuania were also fast finishing, although Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite had to settle for bronze medals in the end.
Following them was the men's equivalent, as Croatia’s brilliant Sinkovic brothers, already the world champions, stormed to victory in Rio following an entertaining battle with Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis and Saulius Ritter.
The Lithuanian pairing were in fast form for the first half of the race, and it looked as though they would spring a big shock on the pre-race favourites. But with the finishing line in sight, the Sinkovic brothers upped the ante and were able to create a sizeable gap between their rivals.
Coming home in third was Kjetil Borch and 40-year-old veteran Olaf Tufte of Norway, who undoubtedly have to be delighted to have taken bronze in a high-quality field.
In the last final on Thursday, it was Switzerland who clinched gold in the men's coxless lightweight fours. Simon Niepmann, Lucas Tramer, Mario Gyr and Simon Schuerch rowed their way to the Olympic title in this one, comfortably ahead of Denmark and France, who took silver and bronze, respectively.
Much has been made of the water pollution that will play a role at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but United States Olympic rower Megan Kalmoe is done talking about the conditions.
She's ready to do whatever it takes to win a gold medal for her country. Even if it means competing in less than savory conditions.
Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times reported Tuesday that health experts are advising Olympic marathon swimmers to keep their mouths closed while they compete—because the waters in Rio are heavily contaminated with superbacteria and rotaviruses. Oh yeah, the athletes will literally be in the same water as human waste.
Yuck.
That nastiness may deter some people from competing in the Olympics. Not Kalmoe. She doesn't care what's in the water; all that matters is that this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"My request to everyone who is fixated on s--t in the water: stop. Stop trying to ruin the Olympics for us," Kalmoe wrote in an essay for the Guardian.
The 2012 bronze medalist in quadruple sculls noted that it does no good to complain about the water quality and that there have been similar concerns about the host cities of each of the past few Olympic Games. While the pollution is an issue (not just for the Summer Games, but for everyday life in Brazil), she is just thankful Rio has put in a lot of time, effort and money to host the Olympics.
Now that the Opening Ceremonies on Aug. 5 are just days away, the 32-year-old Kalmoe doesn't want to talk about the water quality. She is ready to compete: "If you are that insecure about where we stand, America, let me be the one to say it. I'll say it, if it will allay your fears and put some of these issues to rest: I will row through s--t for you, America."
There you have it. No matter what the conditions are, Kalmoe is going to give it her all and represent her country the best she can. After all, she has spent the past decade working hard to get to this point. Now, it's go time.
Nothing is going to keep her from going for gold—not even bacteria-infested water.
[Guardian, h/t CBS Sports]
